Wednesday, May 12

Thursday, May 13

Friday, May 14

Mass in Porto 5 a.m. ET

Upcoming Papal Visits

Papal Visit to Cyprus June 4 - June 6, 2010

Papal Visit to Great Britian September 16 - September 19, 2010

Background / History

Portugal – Republic in west of the Iberian peninsula:
capital, Lisbon. Christianity was introduced before the 4th century.
From the 5th to 8th centuries, the Church endured the invasion of
barbarians and the spread of heresies (Arianism, Priscillianism and
Pelagianism). The Moors ruled from 711, and were not fully expelled
until 1249. In 1139, Portugal became an independent kingdom. In the
15th century, her great explorers (de Gama, Cabral, et al) brought a
large overseas empire. Her missionaries carried the Faith to
overseas colonies, in India, Africa, and South America. The
Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries had no effect in
Portugal, since the Church there had already undergone serious
reform. However, in the 18th century, political tensions developed
with the papacy, with religious ramifications. Royal approval was
required for papal acts. The Jesuits were expelled from Portugal and
the colonies. In the 19th century, liberal revolutionaries made life
difficult for the Church. Likewise in the 20th century, until 1928,
when the Salazar government regularized Church-state relations.

In 1930, the Church approved devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, who
appeared to three Portuguese children, Lucia Santo and her cousins
Francisco and Jacinto Marto, in 1917. It was she whom Pope
John Paul II credited with saving his life in the 1981 assassination
attempt. Catholics are 93% of the population.

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The vision of the Blessed Mother was the first and, in a sense, the
most important of all the catechetical lessons. The children spoke
frequently of her beauty, her kindness and especially of the
wonderful light that shone all about her. They knew immediately that
she was from heaven. They understood that the light she radiated was
God Himself. They knew, without being able to articulate it, that
Mary existed in a glorified body and that she shared physically in
Christ's triumph ova sin and death. Her beauty, in fact, was his
work within her; the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. The
children were not "annihilated" by her presence as they had been by
the Angel of Peace. Rather, they felt the joy and security of the
presence of a Mother. They experienced her "fullness of grace" in a
maternal way. She brought with her a profound experience of God's
presence and love. Her spiritual motherhood was immediately evident
to the children.

The first thing Mary did for the children was to steal from them
their natural fear of death. They discovered in her presence that
life exists beyond the confines of this world, beyond the barrier of
the grave. Mary told them: "I am from heaven." Lucia, speaking for
the three, said: "Will I go to heaven too? And Jacinta and
Francisco?" Mary told them that they would. From that moment, the
children no longer feared death and, in fact, began to long to be
with God and Our Lady in heaven.

In the apparitions the children experienced the Holy Trinity in
Mary, or to be exact, in the light that emanated from the holy
Virgin's heart.

In reference to the May apparition, Lucia states: "Our Lady opened
her hands for the first time, communicating to us a light so intense
that, as it streamed from her hands, its rays penetrated our hearts
and the innermost depths of our souls, making us see ourselves in
God, who is that light, more clearly than we see ourselves in the
best of mirrors. Then, moved by an interior impulse that was also
communicated to us, we fell to our knees repeating in our hearts: 'O
Most Blessed Trinity, I adore you. My God, my God I love you in the
Most Blessed Sacrament.’"

This phenomenon of experiencing God in the light of Mary was
repeated more strongly in the June apparition. Lucia notes: "As Our
Lady spoke the words 'I will be your refuge and the way that will
lead you to God,' she opened her hands and for the second time she
communicated to us the rays of that same intense light. We saw
ourselves in this light, as it were, immersed in God. In the front
of the palm of Our Lady's right hand was a heart encircled by thorns
which pierced it. We understood that this was the Immaculate Heart
of Mary, outraged by the sins of humanity, and seeking reparation."